Tag: Desert Fathers

Seeking the Lord

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hound and hare

A hermit was asked how a watchful monk could prevent himself from being shocked if he saw others returning to the world.

He replied, “A monk should remember hounds when they are hunting a hare. One of them glimpses the hare and gives chase, the others merely see a hound running, and run some way with him, when they get tired and go back to their tracks. Only the leading house keeps up the chase until he catches the hare. He is not deterred by the others who give up, he thinks nothing of cliffs or thickets or brambles, he is often pricked and scratched by thorns, but he keeps on until he catches the hare. So the man who runs after the Lord Jesus aims unceasingly at the cross, and leaps over every obstacle in his way until he comes to the Crucified.

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

Pray without ceasing

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prayer

Some monks called Euchites, or ‘men of prayer’, once came to Lucius in the ninth region of Alexandria.

He asked them, “What manual work do you do?” They said, “We do not work with out hands. We obey St. Paul’s command and pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17). He said to them, “Don’t you eat?” They said, “Yes, we do.” He said to them: “When you are eating who prays for you?” Then he asked them, “Don’t you sleep?” They said “Yes, we do.” He said, “Who prays for you while you are asleep?” and they could not answer him.

Then he said to them, “I may be wrong, brothers, but it seems to me that you don’t do what you say. I will show you how I pray without ceasing although I work with my hands. With God’s help, I sit down with a few palm leaves, and plait them, and say, “Have mercy upon me, O God, after they great mercy: and according to the multitude of they mercies do away with mine iniquity” (Ps 51:1). He asked them, “Is that prayer, or not” They said, “It’s prayer all right.”

He said, “When I spend all day working and praying in my heart, I make about sixteen pence. Two of these I put outside the door, and with the rest I buy flood. Whoever finds the two pennies outside the door prays for me while I am eating and sleeping: and so by God’s grace I fulfil the text, “Pray without ceasing”.

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

An open treasury is quickly spent

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Syncletica said, “An open treasury is quickly spent; any virtue will be lost if it is published abroad and is known about everywhere. If you put wax in front of a fire it melts; and if you pour vain praises on the soul it goes soft and weak in seeking goodness”

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

Sheep and Goats

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22.4.2010: Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna

Some people once came to a hermit in the Thebaid to ask him to cure a demoniac whom they brought with them.

After the hermit had been asked to do this for some time, he said to the demon, “Go out of God’s creature.”

The demon answered, “I will, but first let me ask you a question; tell me, who are the goats and who are the sheep?”

The hermit said, “The goats are people like myself; who the sheep are, God alone knows.”

The demon shouted aloud at the words, crying, “Look here, I am going out because of your humility” and he went out at that moment.

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

Sharing the light

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Sharing the light

There was a hermit in Scetis who lived in a satisfactory way, but he was not good at remembering what he heard. So he went to John the Short to ask him about his forgetfulness. He listened to John, went back to his cell and forget what he had been told.

He came a second time and asked him the same question, listened, went back, and forgot what he had heard the moment he reached his cell. Many times he went backwards and forwards, but could never remember. He happened to meet John and said, “Do you know, abba, I’ve forgotten all you told me? I don’t wan to disturb you, so I didn’t come again.”

John said to him, “Go and light a lamp,” and he lit it. John said, “Bring more lamps and light them from the first,” and he did so.

John said to him, “Was the first lamp harmed, because you used it to light others?” He said, “No.”

“In the same way,” he replied, “John would not be harmed. If all the monks of Scetis should come to me, it would not keep me from God’s love. So come to me whenever you want, and don’t hesitate.”

So, by patience on both sides, God cured the forgetfulness of the hermit. This was the work of the hermits of Scetis, to strengthen those who were attacked by passion; their experience in conflict with themselves meant that they were able to help others along the way.

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

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